Welcome to Litsy!

Continuing my Pride book recommendations, today is Juneteenth (the day the Black folks of the US celebrate the end of slavery). So here are 6 books I feel are proper recommendations for the collision of these two celebrations

If you have not read The Prophets yet, get on it. Rarely has a book made me gasp out loud, this one did it and I fell utterly in love with Isaiah was Samuel. Your heart will break, but in really important ways.

#Bookspin June
1. Comfort of Crows
2. Saving Time
3. An Immense World
4. James
5. Some People Need Killing
6. An Immense World
7. An Immense World
8. Some People Need Killing
9. Some People Need Killing
10. Saving Time
11. James
12. Saving Time
13. Cobalt Red
14. One day
15. One Day
16. Crossings
17. We should not be afraid of the sky
18. We should not be afraid of the sky
19. Cobalt Red
20. Comfort of Crows

This was immensely powerful: I‘d like to listen to it again. Although it‘s long! Set in Mississippi during the enslavement era, with a few throwbacks to Africa in an earlier time, it tells the beautiful passionate heartbreaking story of two Black men in love, the supportive, and crushing responses of those around them. I love how it works different characters with each chapter, going into the White as well as the Black ones, /1

He did think about the ways in which his body wasn‘t his own, and how that condition showed up uniquely for everyone whose personhood wasn‘t just disputed, but denied. Swirling beneath them were the ways in which not having lawful claim to yourself diminished you, yes, but in another way condemned those who invented the disconnection…. what other answer, was there than some kind of flexible, stretching further, so others couldn‘t pull you apart.

You do not yet know, you do not yet understand. We who are from the dark speaking in the seven voices, because seven is the only divine number, because that is who we are and that is who we always have been.
#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

What a beautifully written, heart-wrenching book. Many characters are given and the reason for that all comes together as the story resolves. Love and how it gets suppressed. Hate and how it‘s given power. I just can‘t imagine waking up everyday when those are both personal realities in the everyday of a lifetime.

A poetic and profound story that is not a simple or traditional story of slavery in the deep south, but is a rich telling of ancestry, inherited and shared traumas, and how love and survival can make us do things we never thought possible, both good and bad.

How this book broke my heart! How poetic its writing is and how the enduring love of Isaiah and Samuel shines on every page! Mr Jones Jr manages to create a vivid world, a non-linear timeline full of pain and brutality, but in which love also permeates all existence. It‘s an absolutely brilliant book - Tony Morisson and James Baldwin (Mr Jones‘s literary heroes) would be proud. Exquisite and profound, it still haunts me.

The Two of Them - Isaiah and Samuel. They dared to love each other.

A plantation in the South, by the owners called Elizabeth Plantation, by the slaves called Empty. And Isaiah and Samuel, they are two of the many slaves. Two of the many viewpoints we get in this story, both slaves and owners. But somehow we always end up with The Two of Them.

One day one of the slaves are allowed to preach God‘s word and this will change everything.

The first chapter! 🤯. I also tried to get a cute pic of my dog and the book but big baby is scared.

“Sometimes you‘ve got to really show your love for a great book by rubbing your face all over it.” -Igor

While this story of two enslaved men in love on a cotton plantation was bound to end in tragedy, it‘s an intense and beautiful journey. I hope there will be more from Jones, lots more, because I loved the unique voice he gave this book. He gives us many points of view and weaves timelines, all around Samuel and Isaiah‘s deep bond.

@ozma.of.oz #sundayfunday 1. Goodbye Paradise by Sarina Bowen was the last queer book I finished. Most of my reads these days are queer in some way, including my current read by Jay Bell, Straight Boy. 2. I‘m really looking forward to The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr. 3. Harper Fox for emotionally powerful stories, Simon James Green for queer YA fun, Garrett Leigh for broody steamy bad boys, Sarah Waters for historical queers.

"Books Your Astrological Sign Should Read in May"

Posted on penguin random house's insta. ♍♍♍

The Prophets seems interesting, but not the kind of thing I usually read.

"You do not yet know us.
You do not yet understand."
A complex and rich story. There is trauma but also so much love. Jones is a gorgeous storyteller.

A beautifully written, but also devastating novel, about a two young enslaved men in love on a Mississippi plantation. The points of view also cover the perspectives from other enslaved people as well as some of the others on the plantation.

This book is 🔥🔥🔥!!! Still have about 200 pages to go, but I did not see any of this stuff coming.

Next up….Looking forward to this one, even though I feel it‘s going to be gut wrenching, but that seems to be my reading mood lately.

The reading gods have smiled on me this month with some fantastic reads, but they saved the best for (almost) last. This is a historical novel set on an antebellum cotton plantation, where two enslaved men have an emotional and physical relationship. Given the time and place it cannot end well, and Jones's chronicle of the tragedy is layered, nuanced, poetic, and gut-wrenching. This book, y'all

This was my January #BookSpin pick
@TheAromaofBooks

My #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin reads for January: a literary drama and a pulpy romp. (Bet you can guess which is which.) Looking forward to both.

Thanks @TheAromaofBooks !

My favorite book of 2021 - still hard to believe it‘s a first novel. The scope is huge, spanning centuries and continents, but Jones‘s control is masterful. Relationships are beautifully developed, and the descriptive language is compelling.

I love the idea of this story, of love between two enslaved men which is true and beautiful. But for the first 3/4, I struggled to connect with it. I thought the final 1/4 was terrific, so I‘m giving it a pick, but if not for this being on the 2021 NBA list, I‘m not sure I would‘ve stuck with it.

Heart wrenching. A difficult read, both because of the horrific content and the lyrical writing style which is lovely, but also nonlinear which was challenging. And it‘s long. I did love the beautiful relationship between Samuel and Isaiah and the flashes from Africa, which I believe to be ancestors of the enslaved, though I never understood if it was a direct lineage. Jones admires Toni Morrison, and this definitely felt like one of hers.

New book haul!

That was one hell of a story!!!!

A confused review as I‘m confused. A story of finding love over cruelty, and having the main LGBTQ lovers as slaves on a plantation is really the first I‘ve ever seen written in a novel. But what made it beautiful also made it bad: it was artistic and poignant, wonderfully written, but it was so full of metaphors and allegories, at times I was lost. It‘s not plot driven, a shot in time, but that made it seem listless, going nowhere. A kind ⭐️⭐️⭐️

A DIY patio and a kiddie pool, help to beat this heat!

Im really not sure how I feel about this book. The subject matter was powerful.The writing was superb,it was poetic. My issue is that there were so many times while where I wasn‘t sure what I was reading about.I had to try to figure out what was going on, even then I wasn‘t sure if I was right.This may be one of those books you need to read more than once. While I‘ve always appreciated poetry, I‘ll admit that I don‘t really understand most of it.

Brutality set against love. The first gay relationship I have ever read of enslaved people.
I think I missed correlations and meanings the author intended by titling the chapters Bible chapter names, but it did not get in the way of my appreciation of the story and different perspectives in which the story is told in.

This was a brutal yet beautiful book about the lives of the people on a southern plantation just before the Civil War. The enslaved people there struggle to live the best life they can, sometimes finding some respite, but mostly confronted with cruelty. It is a tragic love story in a different vein. The book did devolve into some overly ornate language at times and the narrative could have used some tightening, but overall a great debut. 4⭐️

I listened to this one on #audiobook and absolutely loved this amazing debut.

"There were many ways to hide and save one‘s self from doom, and keeping tender secrets was one of them. It seemed to Maggie a suicidal act to make a precious thing plain."

Thank you so much for sending this book, Cindy!! I feel bad having it knowing that you haven‘t read it yet. I‘ll gladly send it to you when I‘m done! Anyway, very much looking forward to reading it, especially since I don‘t have #botm anymore! 😘💕

Also thank you for the postcard, which I found after taking this picture. 😂😂

Puah knew that the secret of strength was in how much truth could be endured

My #doublespin book is going to have to be a DNF for now. I got a little over 1/3 of the way through and had to pause. It is very good, but very dense. And hard to read/listen. While I enjoyed it, I am not in the right reading mindset at the moment. So I‘ll think about it & try again at a later time.

Such a wonderful book! But also a hard read! I haven't read many books on slavery to be honest, but in March I read Kindred by Octavis Butler. Two young slaves Isaiah and Samuel have a relationship, live in the barn, but suddenly their relationship is thrust out into the open in a way that people start to notice. We hear POVs from all the characters and also go to an African country and see how they are taken back to America. Powerful read! #books

(Bodily) Samuel saying (a first, uncertain) good-bye to Isaiah... “He and Isaiah had stumbled into something he had never exactly seen before.” The cruel logic of the toubab: “They worked people until their empty hands were twisted, bleeding, and could do no more, then called them lazy... They kidnapped babies and shattered families and then called them incapable of love.” The calling & recalling & reclaiming of names, souls, personhood, of love.

“Truth could be known as long as it wasn‘t spoken.” Adam‘s moment of connection with his father/owner, the emotion of the son, anger & confusion of the enslaved. Chapter more powerful having just read the same incident from slaveowner POV. Recognizing family in the forehead of a drunken, raggedy Paul... “Since Paul had said ‘us‘ like they were actually kin, perhaps a sliver could be made into a gap.” Blood. Kin despite themselves. Inbetweenness.

“What it feel like... to have each other?” 💜The beauty of Isaiah & Samuel‘s love, recognized by all as beyond the beyond until Amos in his newfound religious fervor labels it unclean. The delicacy & strength. This couple, their physical & emotional compatibility, their perfection & fortune in finding each other. “He envied Isaiah and Samuel. Willingness radiated off of them in heat. ...How blessed Adam felt to be a witness to pure intention!”

Lush & lyrical language to depict plantation life in both natural beauty & habitual horrors. Love story between enslaved Isaiah & Samuel is so tenderly depicted, I would have titled “The Two of Them.” Not sure the prophet voices or passages back to precolonial Kosongo territory weave in quite right, but adds to lineage of trauma, memory, & magic. Prose sometimes drippingly evocative, but unforgettable. Nature. Ancestry. Darkness & light. 2021

Up next... so I can send it off to my lovely friend @Megabooks who will need to rearrange her shelves once more 😉

Brutal, beautiful. Exquisite writing. What a debut novel. Echoes of Morrison, Cotes, and Walker. I think this will win a lot of literature prizes. Highly recommend! 4.5 🌟

“You don‘t never get tired, ‘Zay? Tired of baggy for your life? Everything you do—the way you smile, the way you walk, where you look and don‘t look—just another way of begging for your life. You don‘t never get tired?”

Such a beautifully written book.

⭐️

My library hold is ready! Super excited for this one

Great read. I get lost in the language sometimes, but overall enjoying it.